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The Museum's Giant Squid

For centuries, humans have been fascinated by giant squids, among the largest—and most elusive—living invertebrate species. Living far below the surface of the oceans, giant squids had rarely been seen alive—until now.

Last summer, the first video footage of a giant squid in its deepwater habitat was captured. Off a tiny Pacific island, a team including researchers Edith Widder and Tsunemi Kubodera dove in a submersible to film the animal; the video will soon be aired on American television.

The Museum has its own giant squid (Architeuthis kirkii), one of the few specimens housed in a museum in North America, says Curator Neil H. Landman, who studies fossil (and living) invertebrates in the Division of Paleontology.

Like all squids, giant squids each have eight arms and two longer tentacles for grasping prey.

As invertebrates, they have no structural bones. Instead, a paddle-shaped internal support, called a gladius, helps them retain their form. The gladius is formed of chitin, a material also found in, for instance, insect exoskeletons. (A squid's horny beak, also formed of chitin, is found at the base of its prey-grabbing arms; the beak allows the animal to slice and dice fish to eat.)

The Museum’s specimen is a sexually mature male that measures 25 feet long, with eyes that are 6 inches across. (Like many other squid species, male giant squids are probably smaller than females.)

The giant squid’s arms and tentacles are dotted with rows of sharp-toothed suckers, with which the animal can grab its prey.

The suckers also help giant squid attempt to ward off predators such as deep-diving sperm whales. These whales often have scars that match the cookie-cutter-shaped suckers of a giant squid’s tentacles, evidence of a struggle between predator and prey.

In the Irma and Paul Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life, the diorama of a giant squid and a sperm whale sets a dramatic underwater scene.

Today, even the new documentary evidence of giant squids at sea won’t erase the mysteries associated with the species.

In 1861, French sailors on the ship Alecton sighted a giant squid, setting off a frenzy of interest in the animal and inspiring Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, first published in 1870.

As Landman points out, scientists still don’t know how deeply giant squids dwell within the oceans, how many individuals there are, how many giant-squid species exist, how long they live, how fast they grow.

“In many ways,” he says, “the deep oceans are less well known than outer space.”